STORIZEN NEWS
Meghna Pant on her story - Fifty shades of Cow
- Meghna Pant
MEGHNA PANT, the awardwinning author, columnist, speaker and journalist, has added another feather to her short story cap. Her latest story FIFTY SHADES OF COW – which was mentioned by The New Yorker as a raunchy satire they enjoyed reading – has now been longlisted for the prestigious COMMONWEALTH SHORT STORY PRIZE (2018).
It was in the top 200 out of more than 6000 story entries. In the history of the award only one Indian author has won the coveted short story prize.
The author has a unique story behind this story: “I wrote this story in the throes of being a new mother ... on hallucinatory dawns when I hadn't had a wink of sleep ... when my escape from exhaustion was in my writing. The story has taken an interesting journey. While it
didn't make the shortlist, it still feels like a triumph, because sometimes the victory is in the doing rather than the winning, the double helix of being a writer and a woman.”
Pant’s debut collection of short stories HAPPY BIRTHDAY (Random House India, 2013) was longlisted for the world’s biggest short story award: THE FRANK O'CONNOR INTERNATIONAL PRIZE 2014 and shortlisted for the prestigious SAHITYA AKADEMI AWARD. ONE AND A HALF WIFE (Westland, 2012) – her debut novel – won the national Muse India YOUNG WRITER AWARD and was shortlisted for the AMAZON BREAKTHROUGH NOVEL AWARD.
Her short stories have been published in reputed international literary magazines, as well as in anthologies like Namita Gokhale's THE HIMALAYAN ARC.
Pant also won the FON SOUTH ASIA SHORT STORY AWARD (2016) and the BHARAT NIRMAN AWARD (2017) for her writing.
Pant has three upcoming non-fiction books with top publishers: FEMINIST RANI (Penguin Random House), HOLY 100 (Rupa), and HOW TO GET PUBLISHED (Bloomsbury UK).
Her articles have been published in The Huffington Post, Times of India, DNA, Tehelka, Hindustan Times, MidDay, Mumbai Mirror, Vogue, India Today, Scroll, Firstpost and DailyO.
Pant curates the popular event ‘Feminist Rani’, and interviews leading female leaders like Shobhaa De, Chanda Kochhar, Kalki Koechlin and Deepa Malik on She’s The Boss (Firstpost), First Lady (Firstpost), and Get Real (SheThePeople.TV).
Pant has spoken at the nation's biggest literary festivals and conferences, including TEDx, Times Lit Fest, and Kala Ghoda Festival.
She has associated with several charities for underprivileged girls, like the Avanti Young Women Leadership Program, The Blue Ribbon Movement, Kehkasha 2017, Srujna Sheroes and served as a mentor for Sheroes and Vital Voices (a woman empowering initiative by Hillary Clinton).